---
title: “I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: “he taught… — Alice's Adventures in Wonderland · tree and pragmatics
description: “I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: “he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.” Who acts: Mock Turtle, Tis, _. A sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every claus
---

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# Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story, sentence 129

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“I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: “he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.”

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** Mock Turtle, Tis, \_ · **What happens:** not go, say, teach, laugh, use · **To what, where:** Tis · **Speech:** someone speaks here

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This is a sentence of «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Chapter IX. The Mock Turtle’s Story. The page gives its syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (Mock Turtle, Tis, \_), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it from the tree.

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**Parsed by Mova, not checked by a teacher.** This tree is Mova's own parse (the `en` model, on the CPU, when the site is built); it may be wrong.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = book:pg11:10:129
# text = “I never went to him,” the Mock Turtle said with a sigh: “he taught Laughing and Grief, they used to say.”
1	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
2	I	I	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Sing|Person=1|PronType=Prs	4	nsubj	_	_
3	never	never	ADV	RB	PronType=Neg	4	advmod	_	_
4	went	go	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=1|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	ccomp	_	_
5	to	to	ADP	IN	_	6	case	_	_
6	him	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Acc|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	4	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
7	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	4	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
8	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	4	punct	_	_
9	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	11	det	_	_
10	Mock	Mock	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	11	compound	_	_
11	Turtle	Turtle	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	12	nsubj	_	_
12	said	say	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
13	with	with	ADP	IN	_	15	case	_	_
14	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	sigh	sigh	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	12	obl	_	SpaceAfter=No
16	:	:	PUNCT	:	_	19	punct	_	_
17	“	"	PUNCT	``	_	19	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
18	he	he	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Gender=Masc|Number=Sing|Person=3|PronType=Prs	19	nsubj	_	_
19	taught	teach	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	12	parataxis	_	_
20	Laughing	laugh	VERB	VBG	VerbForm=Ger	19	xcomp	_	_
21	and	and	CCONJ	CC	_	22	cc	_	_
22	Grief	Grief	PROPN	NNP	Number=Sing	20	conj	_	SpaceAfter=No
23	,	,	PUNCT	,	_	25	punct	_	_
24	they	they	PRON	PRP	Case=Nom|Number=Plur|Person=3|PronType=Prs	25	nsubj	_	_
25	used	use	VERB	VBD	Mood=Ind|Tense=Past|VerbForm=Fin	19	conj	_	_
26	to	to	PART	TO	_	27	mark	_	_
27	say	say	VERB	VB	VerbForm=Inf	25	xcomp	_	SpaceAfter=No
28	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	12	punct	_	SpaceAfter=No
29	”	"	PUNCT	''	_	12	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **not** **go** *in a quote* | past | the Mock Turtle *= turtle* |  | Tis |  |  |  | vn escape-51.1-1 «NP V PP.initial\_location»: agent=Theme to he=Initial\_Location |
| 2 | **say** *speech: assert* | past | the Mock Turtle |  |  |  |  | with a sigh | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 3 | **teach** *speech: other* *in a quote* | past | Tis |  |  |  |  |  | vn transfer\_mesg-37.1.1-1-1 «NP V how S»: agent=Agent clause=Topic |
| 4 | **laugh** *in a quote* | gerund | Tis *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn nonverbal\_expression-40.2 «NP V»: agent=Agent |
| 5 | **use** *in a quote* | past | \_ |  |  |  |  |  | vn use-105.1 «NP V NP S\_INF»: agent=Agent clause=Eventuality |
| 6 | **say** *speech: assert* *in a quote* | to-infinitive | \_ *not said here* |  |  |  |  |  | vn say-37.7-1-1 «NP V that S»: agent=Agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

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**Text:** «Alice's Adventures in Wonderland» by Lewis Carroll, Project Gutenberg book 11 (public domain in the USA). **Tree:** Mova's own parse, Elamur Cosmic License. **Frames:** Mova's frames reader (`prag`), the chapter read in order.

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